McLaren
Jenson Button (1st)
“That was the best victory of my career, and today is therefore a very special day for me. I fought my way from last to first to win the race, and I overtook the cars in front of me on the track.

“It was an amazing victory – I don’t think it could have been any better, especially after Monte-Carlo where we thought we had a win in the bag but were then disappointed at the very end. I was a little bit fortunate today when Sebastian (Vettel) made a mistake on the last lap, but I think we deserved that bit of luck!

“As far as the incident with Lewis is concerned, I couldn’t see a thing behind me except a blur of Vodafone rocket-red, but that could have been my rear wing: obviously, it’s the same colour as Lewis’s car.

“Now, I just want to enjoy this moment; it’s been a long time coming and it couldn’t have been much sweeter.”

Hamilton tips Webber into a spin on lap five

Lewis Hamilton (DNF)
“First of all, I have to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Jenson – he drove an absolutely incredible race and thoroughly deserved this victory. It was an utterly fantastic performance, from a truly great driver.

“Although the conditions were very tricky from the start, I had pretty good grip and I was doing the best I could to keep the car on the track; I think I had pretty good race pace, and I didn’t have any particular problems. I touched Mark’s (Webber) car after he braked a bit early into the first corner. He left me enough room, but I touched the inside kerb and understeered into him.

After I fell back behind Jenson, he outbraked himself into the final chicane and got a poor exit, so I was able to get a good run on him. It felt to me like I was halfway alongside him down the pits straight – but, as he probably hadn’t spotted me, he continued moving across on the racing line.There was no room for me, so I hit the wall. Of course, I don’t think it was intentional: I know Jenson well enough and I know he wouldn’t do that. He’s a good guy.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix may well be remembered as one of the most eventful, exciting and suspenseful races in Formula One history. In fact I think I’ve heard the word ‘unbelievable’ shouted at me by joyful colleagues about a hundred times this afternoon, and in truth Jenson’s drive was exactly that: absolutely unbelievable. Other adjectives that spring to mind are ‘heroic’, ‘majestic’, ‘magnificent’ and ‘superb’!”

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (2nd)
”Of course I’m disappointed. I think it was a very difficult race from start to finish and we led every single lap, apart from the last one, or part of the last one. I think I was probably too conservative when I was in the lead after the last safety car.

“I made a mistake. It’s down to me, I locked up the rear a little bit and what you have to do then is open up the car and go a bit straighter, there’s only one line and I ended up in the wet, so it was quite easy for him to pass.

“At the moment – when you have it in your hands and you give it away – then it’s not the sweetest feeling. But, I think all in all, it was a good race for us today.”

Mark Webber (3rd)
“It was an eventful race! I had a few people to pass after the break; it wasn’t too hard until the dry line appeared on the racing line and it was slippery off line. When you have experienced guys like Michael (Schumacher) and Nick (Heidfeld) to pass, well those guys know what they’re doing, so it becomes even trickier.

“It was a pretty good fight with Michael, we both wanted the same bit of track when we were braking for the chicane, but when JB arrived, he was absolutely flying. Today’s result means plenty of points for the team and it’s a good result, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“After a long afternoon and to have pretty much led every lap of the race, it was obviously frustrating to lose the Grand Prix almost in sight of the chequered flag. Unfortunately Sebastian made a rare mistake on a day when a lot of drivers made a lot of mistakes. He paid a price, but second is still a very good result and far from disastrous.”

Schumacher was chasing first podium since 2006

Mercedes
Michael Schumacher (4th)
“I am leaving this race with one eye laughing and one eye crying, as I am not sure if I should be excited or sad about it.

“Having been in second place towards the end, I would obviously have loved to finish there and be on the podium again. But even if it did not work out in the very end, we can be happy about the result and the big fight we put in.”

Nico Rosberg (11th)
“It was a very demanding race this afternoon. In general, everything was okay with my car and, at the end, I was up there in the points but I made a mistake at the hairpin on lap 66. I was trying to overtake Kobayashi and was very close behind him in turn 10; he slowed when I didn’t expect it, I hit the back of him and damaged my front wing.”

Ross Brawn, Mercedes GP team principal
” It was a thrilling race and Michael drove beautifully in the second part; he did a strong job on the intermediates and the option tyres, but was unable to hold off Jenson and Mark’s faster cars, particularly when they had the use of DRS. Even so, it was a fantastic drive to climb eight places and finish fourth.”

Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“This wasn’t just a Grand Prix – it was like an action movie. This was motor racing at its best.”

Renault
Vitaly Petrov (5th)
“Today, the conditions became very difficult after a few laps and stopping the race was the right decision. There was absolutely no grip and the car was aquaplaning everywhere.

“I really feel we could have finished on the podium today. That said, I welcome these extra points, and I think we’re back on track after a couple of difficult races. A big thank you to the team for the work this weekend.”

Nick Heidfeld (DNF)
“Naturally, the main disappointment for me is that I didn’t finish the race. I was behind Kamui (Kobayashi) and then something happened. He slowed down suddenly and I hit the back of him, which resulted in my front wing coming off and me going off the track. I was on track for fifth and some good points, so it’s frustrating.”

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel (1st, Q3 – 1m 13.014s)
“I’m happy with that. I had a rough start yesterday morning, but thankfully the guys could fix the car and I had more practice in the afternoon, which is important here.

“All in all, I’m very happy. It’s obviously a big step we’ve made today, but the big task comes tomorrow. The conditions are likely to change and I’m sure we’ll see some rain – the question is when and how much. We’ll see, but P1 is the best position to start from.”

Mark Webber (4th, Q3 – 1m 13.429s)
“It was a good afternoon and I was happy with how we recovered. I couldn’t have got much more out of the car for qualifying today; I didn’t have KERS, which affected my performance. The guys did everything they could to get it ready after the problem we had this morning and we were confident that it was fixed, but on the formation lap it lapsed again.

“It’s a long Grand Prix tomorrow and there’s likely to be a bit of weather coming in, so it should be an interesting race.”

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“It’s fantastic to get our first pole position in Montreal. It was a great performance by Sebastian again today, completing two laps in Q3 that were good enough for pole. The Ferrari’s have been very quick here and we expect them and McLaren to be a big challenge tomorrow.”

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso (2nd, Q3 – 1m 13.199s)
“It’s been a long time – since Singapore 2010 in fact – that I was last on the front row and I am pleased that Felipe is also right up close to me on the starting grid. It means the whole team has worked well, at the track and back home on trying to improve our car performance. It was important to show we can be competitive and we managed it.

“We will try to put the Red Bulls under pressure, right from the start, but we know McLaren will also be very strong, especially as their rear wing is possibly better adapted to the conditions in the case of a wet track.”

Felipe Massa (3rd, Q3 – 1m 13.217s)
“It’s been a great weekend so far: we have always been competitive and finally we will be able to start from a good grid position.

“I expect McLaren will be very strong tomorrow as will be the Red Bulls obviously. A podium would be a great result, fighting for the win would be even better. What will happen if it rains? That’s a good question, because this year we have never had a real opportunity to run in the wet. On top of that, at this track, the slightest slip up carries a very high price, therefore it’s important to be very careful.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“For the first time this year we managed to fight for the very top places on the grid, right down to the final second and, for once, the gap to pole position is reasonable. It’s our best qualifying of the season and it’s great to have both cars on the front two rows.”

McLaren have gambled on raceday rain

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton (5th, Q3 – 1m 13.565s)
“Personally, I was very happy with my lap: I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car as hard in my life as I did this afternoon. I was right on the ragged edge and I think I even touched the wall at one stage. But, even so, I managed only P5; that was all I could do.

“I hope our race pace will prove to be stronger tomorrow than our qualifying pace was today: we’re losing a couple of tenths along the back straight, which hurt us in qualifying. We’ve got a long seventh gear – a bit too long for qualifying perhaps – but that should be good for overtaking.”

Jenson Button (7th, Q3 – 1m 13.838s)
“We didn’t quite have the pace that we’d hoped for – and that’s a little frustrating. My last lap in Q3 was looking really good – but then I overdrove, started locking up and lost a bit of time.”

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal
“Perhaps our cars had a little bit too much downforce for today’s qualifying session, which was dry; but, if it rains tomorrow, which is what the weather forecast tells us it will probably do, then we should be in good shape.”

Mercedes GP
Nico Rosberg (6th, Q3 – 1m 13.814s)
“Generally we have made good progress this weekend and qualifying in sixth position was good for us today. It’s good to have saved a set of new options as well.”

“We have developed our set-up in the right direction over the weekend, and the long runs looked quite good this morning, so we should be ok in the race.”

Renault
Nick Heidfeld (9th, Q3 – 1m 14.062s)
“I am extremely happy because I think I achieved the maximum I could have done today. We actually drove with more downforce than normal, as we were gambling a bit and hoping for wet conditions tomorrow.

“Obviously you always want to be higher up than P9 but being in the top ten is satisfying and we will try to improve on this tomorrow by securing a good pace and gaining some places.”

Vitaly Petrov (10th, Q3 – 1m 14.085s)
“The track temperatures were much lower than yesterday and it was very difficult to warm-up the tyres properly throughout qualifying. As a result, I was lacking grip out there and I lost a bit of time during my quickest lap.”

Force India
Paul di Resta (11th, Q2 – 1m 14.752s)
“We were very close to making it through to Q3 today, but in the end we had to settle for P11. Maybe the tyre strategy we opted for was not optimal for qualifying, but I’ve managed to save a set of new options for the race so hopefully that will help us tomorrow.

P11 is a good place to start from and it’s probably better to be on the clean side of the track. We’ve been competitive here since the start of the weekend and I’m sure we can have a good race tomorrow and hopefully score some points.”

Adrian Sutil (14th, Q2 – 1m 15.287s)
“It hasn’t been the easiest of weekends so far, but I was still hoping for a bit more from the qualifying session. Unfortunately I made a mistake in the hairpin on my last lap. I hit a bump under braking which caused the rear tyres to lock and I slid wide.”

“Our pace is good and the field is very close. We are not too far from the points and, with overtaking possible here, there’s every chance we can have a good day tomorrow. I think it’s going to be an exciting race.”

Rubens Barrichello (16th, Q2 – 1m 15.361s)
“Unfortunately, we had with a problem with the front disc in Q2. It wasn’t coming up to temperature so the car was pulling to one side and eventually caused me to go off the track.

“We actually have a very good car that is capable of better things but there are overtaking opportunities here, and we have the pace, so there is every reason to be positive for a strong race.”